Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs
Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs meets;
Committee discusses AMRUT and AMRUT 2.0
The Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs met in New Delhi today. The Committee discussed Atal Mission for Rejuvenation Urban Transformation and AMRUT 2.0. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri. It was also attended by the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Shri Kaushal Kishore.
AMRUT, a centrally sponsored scheme, was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister in 2015 in 500 cities. It covered over 60% urban population for 5 years from FY 2015-16 to FY 2019-20. AMRUT has now been merged with AMRUT 2.0 and ongoing projects will be funded till 31st March, 2023.
The thrust areas of the AMRUT are water supply, sewerage and septage management, storm water drainage, green spaces and park, and non-motorised urban transport. AMRUT provides flexibility to States/UTs to apprise, approve and implement projects at their level. The Mission has a reform agenda with 11 reforms comprising 54 milestones which broadly cover online services to citizens, establishing single window for all building approvals, developing at least one park for children every year, energy audit, credit rating of cities, urban planning, etc.
So far, 4,516 projects costing Rs.29,780 crore have been completed and work is in progress for 1,350 projects worth Rs.52,562 crore. In all, work worth Rs.64,279 crore has been physically executed on ground. Under the Mission, 130 lakh household water tap connections and 99 lakh sewer connections/coverage with septage management has been provided. Water treatment plants of 2,351 MLD capacity have been created. 2,263 parks and green spaces projects covering 4,430 acre have been developed. Another 1,000 acre area is under greening. 2,386 water logging points have been eliminated by constructing 900 km of strong water drains. 700 km pedestrian walk way have been created under non-motorised urban transport. 94 lakh conventional street lights have been replaced with energy efficient LED lights. Credit rating to 470 AMRUT Urban Local Bodies has been awarded. Online Building Permission System has been implemented in 2,446 cities including 456 AMRUT cities. So far Rs.37,493 crore have been released as central assistance to the States/UTs.
In the spirit of “Transformation to Saturation” and to take forward the impetus generated under AMRUT, Hon’ble Prime Minister launched AMRUT 2.0 on 1.10.2021, with target to make cities water secure and provide functional water tap connections to all households in all of about 4800 urban local bodies. It also aims universal coverage of sewerage and septage management in 500 AMRUT cities. This will be achieved by providing 2.68 crore new tap and 2.64 crore new sewer connections. It also has a reform agenda comprising mandatory and other reforms whose implementation will be awarded with reform incentives. AMRUT 2.0 has outlay of Rs.2,77,000 crore including central share of Rs.76,760 crore for 5 years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2025-26. A collaborative AMRUT 2.0 technology platform has been created for the implementation of the Scheme. There has been substantive progress of AMRUT 2.0, with State Water Action Plan of 18 States/UTs comprising 1,875 projects having been approved by the APEX Committee till 4th July, 2022. 57.28 lakh new tap connections and 9.65 lakh new sewer connections have been proposed by States/UTs through SWAPs submitted. Water bodies having total area 16,289 acre are proposed to be regenerated. Pey Jal Survekshan in all AMRUT Cities have been taken up.
Hon’ble Members of Parliament taking part in the Consultative Committee meeting gave certain valuable suggestions for improvement of the Scheme.